“The bottom line is something north of $600,000 based on the latest percentage of sequester,” he said. “That would be played over into next year. Of course, if they don’t fix all this, it could go on for several years. We’re hoping they come to some kind of reasonable conclusion.”

For the 2012-13 year, the school district has budgeted $149.6 million, about $20 million more than the previous year.

While $623,000 is “certainly no small amount,” Gooden said, “in the big scheme of things, that’s not a major part of the budget, but it’s going to cause you to do some things.”

“Frankly, I’ve seen this coming,” Gooden said of the sequestration, which took effect Friday. “We’ve been trying to lay back a little money this last year from state-targeted funds that essentially serve the same type of purposes so we could avoid disrupting programs.”

The district has about $1 million in unused state funds, he said.

“We had a considerable amount of money we didn’t spend,” Gooden said, adding that the funds were not necessarily intended to offset federal cuts.

“Funding streams for high-poverty schools, students with special needs and military and Native American students are receiving the most devastating blows,” a “disappointed” PTA President Betsy Landers stated in a response to the sequester.

Estimates from the White House indicate Arkansas will lose about $5.9 million in funding for primary and secondary education. In addition, Arkansas will lose an estimated $5.6 million in funds for about 70 teachers, aides and staff who help children with disabilities.

The National Education Association estimates that of the total $85.3 billion in sequester cuts, $3 billion will come from federal education programs that 7.4 million students rely upon.

Those students, the NEA says, include at-risk and special needs students, English language learners, homeless youths and young people aspiring to go to college.

Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, said a $1.1 billion reduction to Title I could mean cutting off funding to more than 4,000 schools serving more than 1.8 million disadvantaged students.

“Schools with high concentrations of low-income children, they of course get more Title I,” Gooden said. “What that means is school districts like Fort Smith will feel the cut to a greater degree than schools that don’t have a lot of low-income kids. That’s a big deal.”

Another hit to the school district will be in funds from the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act program, Gooden said.

“That’s federal funding that helps us with kids with disabilities,” he said. “The bad thing about that is when those funds are cut, you can’t just cut services. In Title I, you can just say we’ll just not provide that additional help. In IDEA, those are federally mandated services. So we’re going to have to find the money somewhere else.”

Although federal funding cuts are “bad news, and it’s very frustrating,” Gooden said that if there is good news, “it’s the fact that it doesn’t take effect until next year for us.”

“That gives us a little more strategizing and planning time,” he said. “The worst thing about sequestration is that some of those programs, if you eliminate them and want to start them up again, you won’t be where you were. We’re going to try to avoid disruption to the best of our ability.”